Garage Furniture Case Study

Garage furniture case study from HEC Showman

What follows in this garage furniture case study is an insight into how our new range of garage furniture has been developed.

For longer than we care to remember we have manufactured steel cabinets of various sizes and configurations for a wide variety of industry sectors. Each sector has differing specific requirements but effectively they are all a steel cabinet. Our cabinets have developed over the years, each building on the next, developing and improving over time.

We started many years ago manufacturing control cabinets for water treatment works and the like, this was in the days before CNC machines and when each part had to be effectively cut by hand. Over the past thirty plus years as manufacturing methods have improved so has the accuracy and quality of our cabinets.

With each cabinet type we have manufactured we have adhered to a specification required of that industry sector to which it is sold.

The first cabinet of our own type we manufactured and marketed was our range of Shotgun cabinets. These were made during the nineteen nineties to the present day. Initially taking advantage for marketing of the early commercial days of the world wide web and something which we still use today. Several years later, following an approach by a Pharmacy association we developed a small range of Controlled drugs cabinets for their members. Many years after and following much research we are now a respected authority in the manufacture and installation of controlled drugs cabinets and medicine cabinets with probably the largest stock and product range in the industry.

Seeking to extend our range of products we then developed a range of hazardous substance cabinets. These are CoSHH cabinets, hazardous substance cabinets, acid and alkali and pesticide cabinets. All of which are manufactured in a similar way to our medicine cabinets. CoSHH cabinets however, require a slightly different method of manufacture to medicine cabinets. A requirement of these types of cabinet is that their base should be of a size and have a volume capacity to contain without leaks 110% of the largest vessel stored within.

New Range of Garage Furniture

Our new range of garage furniture came about as, like many we are fans of our cars and motor-sport and have visited many motor-sport events over the years. Hence the need to write a garage furniture case study. We noticed that whilst there are numerous tool boxes on the market, most are cheap and cheerful or at the other end of the market hugely expensive with nothing of note in between. We noticed particularly that the bespoke market for this type of product is almost untouched. So, we sought to manufacture a product which we hope will sit within this gap in the market. With our design, manufacturing and powder coating facility we set about to design a suit of cabinets which we hope will be popular within the market. We did our research of the units currently being sold and came up with our own configuration which we designed using many of the design features we currently incorporate in our medicine cabinets. Our thoughts were to have two brands. One which would be an entry level product where we would endeavor to compete with the more mass-produced market but with a fully assembled unit supplied. Our usp therefore with these would be that the units are delivered fully assembled as opposed to the competition which require self-assembly.

The second part of the brand would be a higher end product range which we hope would become aspirational to the budget price purchaser. This high-end product would be available to be made bespoke and specific to the needs and requirements of the customer if required.

A display unit has been manufactured and has been assembled within a garage environment for it to be photographed for marketing.

Our target market is men age range of 50 and over who are passionate about motorsport or engineering. We see these as being likely to have disposable income and who we feel will be more interested in this type of product. To target this market sector, we are exhibiting our new range of garage furniture for the first time at The classic car and restoration show in the NEC and also intend to promote the product in certain published magazines.

Our aim is to break into the large car dealer network market where we see the more lucrative volumes to be had. Export also seems to be quite a buoyant market for these units with a lot of interest from the far east in this market.

Time will tell whether this product “has legs” so to speak but we do feel the manufacture and marketing of our own products is the key to our future.

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